Marcus and his companions hovered nearly three hundred feet above Crab Lake, quietly observing the twin-clawed crab in the center of the water and the chaotic battle raging along the shore.

At that distance, the players below could clearly make out the Nightmare Dragon Steed, the Violet Thunderwing Steed, and the Cloud-Mist Gale Steed.

"So cool!"

"Damn, look at that!"

"Holy crap! All the top mounts are here at once!"

"I’m so jealous!"

More and more players stopped fighting as voices of astonishment spread across the battlefield. Heads tilted upward, weapons lowered, and countless eyes fixed on the sky.

The Nightmare Dragon Steed. The Violet Thunderwing Steed. The Cloud-Mist Gale Steed.

Every one of them was famous throughout Dominion.

Most players had only seen screenshots and forum discussions. Nobody had ever seen these legendary mounts gathered together in one place before.

Naturally, their attention quickly shifted from the mounts to the people riding them.

Unfortunately for them, Marcus and the others were too high above the battlefield.

The mounts themselves were large enough to see clearly, but their riders appeared only as distant silhouettes. The players could make out outlines and movement, but faces remained impossible to distinguish.

The owners of those legendary mounts remained mysterious.

Unknown, untouchable, and almost unreal. Yet the mounts weren’t what captured the most attention.

It was the cloud.

The massive white cloud drifting across the sky immediately drew everyone’s gaze. After the initial excitement over the mounts faded, nearly every player found themselves staring at the three figures standing atop it.

Even from this distance, one thing was obvious; they were women.

Their figures were graceful, their movements elegant, and against the backdrop of the floating cloud, they looked almost otherworldly.

The cloud carried them effortlessly through the sky while their robes and hair shifted gently in the wind.

For a moment, the entire battlefield seemed frozen. Then someone finally broke the silence.

"Angels!"

The shout echoed across the lakeshore.

"Angels are descending from heaven!"

The cry instantly spread through the crowd.

"Are they angels?"

"Or gods?"

Many players could hardly believe what they were seeing.

"If those aren’t angels, then what are they?" a warrior declared confidently.

A female player standing beside him looked up with obvious envy before tugging on his arm.

"Honey, I want a cloud mount too."

The surrounding players burst into discussion.

"Wait, you can ride clouds in Dominion?"

"That’s insane."

"Flying around like those cultivation immortals..."

"Does Dominion actually have cultivation classes?"

"If it does, sign me up. I want to become immortal too."

Players who had been trying to kill each other only moments earlier were now standing side by side, discussing the cloud and the women riding it.

The battle had practically stopped.

Guild members, mercenaries, and independent players alike had forgotten what they were doing. Some still held weapons pointed at their enemies, yet neither side seemed interested in attacking.

Even the twin-clawed crab in the middle of the lake turned its head toward the sky, apparently curious about the unusual visitors.

Marcus stared down at the scene below.

’Seriously? They’ve all stopped fighting?’

He felt a little disappointed.

The chaos below had originally caught his attention because it created opportunities. Large battles always produced confusion, and confusion was exactly the kind of environment Marcus liked to take advantage of.

Now everyone was staring at him instead, there wasn’t much he could do. His eyes briefly shifted toward the twin-clawed crab.

The boss was definitely tempting.

It was isolated in the middle of the lake, far from the players. With his current strength, Marcus was fairly certain he could swoop down, kill it quickly, grab the loot, and leave before anyone could stop him.

The feat would instantly become famous throughout Dominion.

Any ambitious player, especially the leaders of major guilds, would jump at an opportunity like that.

Marcus wasn’t interested. Fame had never been one of his goals.

More importantly, killing the boss in front of thousands of players was asking for trouble. Most of them couldn’t defeat the crab themselves, but that didn’t mean they’d happily watch someone else claim everything.

Marcus understood people well enough to know that crowds could be unpredictable.

You could offend one person and deal with the consequences. Offending several thousand at once was a different matter entirely.

The rewards weren’t worth the headache.

After making his decision, Marcus gently urged Blackie forward. The Nightmare Dragon Steed stepped across the sky, flames flickering beneath its hooves.

Nearby, Amethyst beat its wings as arcs of lightning danced around her body.

Snowy glided through the air on currents of wind.

Lily, Ms. Willow, and Crystal stood upon the Harmony Cloud, looking almost unreal against the bright white mist.

Together, they turned westward and headed toward Ironstone Citadel and the distant Valley of Ten Thousand Wolves.

They had arrived quietly, and they left just as quietly.

Marcus never descended, he never spoke and he never touched the boss. Yet his departure left a deeper impression than if he had. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Long after the group disappeared beyond the horizon, countless players remained staring into the distance.

Then someone finally recovered his senses.

His eyes landed on the enemy standing a few feet away, who was still distractedly watching the sky.

The opportunity was too good to ignore.

"Die!"

His sword plunged forward.

"Damn it! You stabbed me!"

The victim immediately reacted.

"Kill him!"

"Who shot me?!"

"Get back here!"

"Where’s the healer?"

"Protect the Sorcerers!"

The moment the first attack landed, the fragile peace shattered. Like a spark dropped into dry grass, the entire battlefield exploded back into violence.

Players who had been discussing cloud mounts and cultivation a moment earlier immediately resumed trying to kill one another.

The lakeshore once again descended into complete chaos.

Meanwhile, some players had already decided they had more important things to do.

"Don’t kill me! I’m logging out!"

One player desperately retreated from the fighting. He couldn’t wait to upload his recording to the forums.

Others had similar ideas.

"Stop attacking me! I’m teleporting back to town!"

Their footage might have been blurry, but it contained something priceless: the first public appearance of the Nightmare Dragon Steed, the Violet Thunderwing Steed, the Cloud-Mist Gale Steed, and the mysterious women riding the floating cloud.

Many players were already planning to sell their recordings to the Nightmare Auction House, where they could be publicly broadcast to audiences across Dominion.

Before the day was over, the scene above Crab Lake would spread throughout the entire game.

And while nobody knew the identities of the people in the sky, one thing was certain; a new legend had just been born.